Dancer has been doing very well indeed in NADAC, including one of the most amusing two-on-two-off contacts ever on Saturday…. She stopped just above the yellow–because I’d stopped–and then dropped off the side in a very nice stretched-out contact. The judge laughed; I laughed; spectators laughed. But the fact is, she gave me great contacts this weekend. We took second in one round of Elite regular today–and first in the other. I should add that she was the only 20+ dog to Q in both rounds. People thought they were tough courses with tight call-offs; I thought there was plenty of room if I cued the turn well, and I would say that Dancer agreed. She finished her Elite Regular title today.

She Q’d only in Jumpers yesterday, but we were both re-syncing after my five days away, and parts of every single run were great–just not the whole run. Even in the Jumpers run, I felt she could have done better (she was fifth–how embarrassing!).

Dancer got her first ever Q in Elite Chances today, including a TWENTY-foot distance line parallel to the dogwalk.

I was very pleased yesterday with Elly, who got her third Q (ever) in Novice Touch-N-Go and now has her NADAC Novice Versatility Award. To my knowledge, only about fifteen standard poodles have gotten the award (Dancer of course is one of them). As I said to a friend (who knows Elly well), for Elly, the Novice Versatility Award is like a MACH for any other dog, given her challenges.

Official results:
Dancer: Elite Jumpers: 147 yards, 30.67 sec, SCT: 30.95 sec (5th)
Elite Regular 1: 183 yards, 45.37 sec, SCT: 48.8 sec (2nd)
Elite Regular 2: 183 yards, 47.11 sec, SCT: 48.8 sec (1st)
Chances: Q

Elly: Touch N Go: 169 yards, 41.61 sec, SCT: 52 sec (2nd)

Surprisingly, it was a lovely trial. It was one ring, small and intimate and very friendly. No one whined about the weather. Everyone (seriously) volunteered. I know this to be a fact, because I was the chief ring steward, and I had zero problem finding volunteers.

Dancer got two Qs in Open Regular and finished her Open Versatility award; she also Qd in Open Chances and Elite Jumpers. She even took first in Elite Jumpers! Her Jumpers run was very interesting, because I could tell she was being careful of the conditions. Other dogs were slipping and knocking bars; she simply dialed down the speed just a touch and ran confidently. (Of course, I wasn’t worried about slipping, since I had my Inov-8 shoes.)

Elly had two phenomenal runs, both of them NQs. She did better weaving than I’ve seen her do in years, and I have proof:

Photos by Joe Camp

Dancer got her first (and so far, only) Elite title: NADAC Elite Jumpers Certificate (EJC).
She also got her Novice Versatility and her Novice Triple Superior.

After two years of retraining, Dancer did the teeter in a competitive environment during 2010. We are opening 2011 with an AKC trial, and I have high hopes that she will do the teeter during her Novice Standard run. I’m even hoping for a Q or two in Novice Standard. We’ll see.

As for me: well, I’ve lost 18 pounds this year. That’s made me a bit faster and my knees hurt a bit less. Every little bit helps. Next year… well, another 18 would be nice.

Elly’s dogwalk contact looked like this:

Photo by Joe Camp

We moved on to Tunnelers, where my late cues confused Dancer and sent her off-course.

I went back to the hotel and slept deeply and well: Saturday was another day. The Open Chances course looked like an excellent course for both dogs, as it included some of the exact things I’d been training (weaves at a distance, a tunnel/dogwalk discrimination). I ran Dancer first, and she ran well and Q’d easily. Elly went around a jump but otherwise also did well–she did choose to skip the weaves.

On to Regular, where Dancer and I were E’d for training contacts in both runs. She was really flying, and stopping just didn’t seem to be in her agenda. I am vacillating about training a running a-frame. That would be contact option number four, and I’ve been successful with none of them. From there to Elite Jumpers, where Dancer got her second Elite Jumpers Q with a spectacular run in the 20+” class, taking second! Then Hoopers–and I sent her off-course. (Elly also ran in Hoopers, and provided crowd entertainment.) Our final run of Saturday was Open Weavers, where Dancer placed first, narrowly faster than the dog that won Elite Jumpers.

Sunday began with Chances again. The course was rather more complex than Saturday’s–four spots I identified as challenges. The first included two jumps in a line and than a turn to another jump–with the tunnel beckoning, straight ahead. Dancer shot past me and into the tunnel before I could turn her, but completed the next two challenges–two jumps and a turn to two out jumps, then a tunnel/dogwalk discrimination–and flew through to the finish (including the last challenge: getting a push to a hoop followed by a pull to a tunnel). So no Q, but an exciting run nonetheless.

Elly then provided more crowd entertainment. She began her Chances run nicely, then stopped dead on the other side of the line and stared at me, tail up and slowly wagging. Clearly, she was contemplating her next move. I did a play bow toward her, and she flew to me, and I turned her to finish the course… which she did, sort of, but getting the dogwalk instead of the tunnel.

photos by Joe Camp

From there, Dancer and I went on to two failures in Regular (problems with contacts, what a surprise) and a fourth in Elite Jumpers, finishing her EJC title. The power failed, and WAG continued on, pulling out stopwatches to hand-time the final class, Weavers. Dancer once again placed first in Open Weavers, with the best run she’s ever had in Weavers, running 4.9 yards/second, faster than she’d just run in Jumpers. That finished her Superior Open Weavers title, and we move to Elite in Weavers.

Photo by Joe Camp

Official results:
Elly: no Qs, but a lot of fun, no stress, no limping, kept playing with me all weekend.
Dancer: Open Chances Q
Open Weavers: 1st, 149 yards, 32.75 seconds, SCT: 42.57 seconds, 4.5 yps
Open Weavers: 1st, 171 yards, 35.04 seconds, SCT: 48.86 seconds, 4.9 yps
Elite Jumpers: 2nd, 140 yards, 24.97 seconds, SCT: 29.47 seconds, 5.6 yps
Elite Jumpers: 4th, 126 yards, 26.39 seconds, SCT: 26.53 seconds, 4.8 yps

It was an astonishingly good weekend.

Dancer got THREE Qs in Novice Regular and finally finished her Superior Novice Regular title, which also meant that she finished her Novice Triple Superior award (meaning she has Superior titles in Regular, Jumpers, and Chances). She got an Open Chances Q (only her second one: those twenty-foot sends are a major challenge). She got a Q in Open Hoopers (and her Outstanding Open Hoopers title).

To me, the biggest deal of all, though, was her FIRST EVER Elite Jumpers Q. I’ve struggled with making time in Elite Jumpers. There’s just no room at all for error. None. For the last few weeks, I’ve been doing sprint training with Dancer: a line of four jumps to a tunnel (as described in a previous post). I could not believe it today when the opening to the Elite Jumpers course was: four jumps in a straight line to a tunnel. As I said to a friend: how often in a trial do you get something you’ve just spent the last two weeks training?!

Of course I’ve also been doing my own sprint training, and I would like to report, quite proudly, that I planned and got to three front crosses. Dancer is definitely faster with front crosses and it’s quite a challenge for me. But I got there. Dancer even got FOURTH place in the large 20+ field.

As for Elly, she also made me proud. I’ve been working a bit on her contacts–not too much–and she got her second-ever Touch-N-Go Q! Good girl!

Official results:
Dancer:
Elite Jumpers: 31.90 seconds, SCT 32.40 seconds, 154 yards, 4th place (4.8 yps)
Open Hoopers: 32.10 sec, SCT 40 seconds, 2nd place
Open Chances: Q
Novice Regular: 140 yds, 33.45 sec, SCT 50.9 sec, 2nd (4.2 yps)
Novice Regular: 138 yds, 31.17 sec, SCT 50.1 sec, 2nd (4.4 yps)
Novice Regular: 138 yds, 37.64 sec, SCT 50.1 sec, 3rd (3.7 yps)

Elly:
Novice Touch N Go: 140 yds, 44.36 sec, SCT 47.39 sec, 2nd (3.2 yps)

Dancer ran in Level 2 Standard for the first time. That meant: the teeter. Now, she’s done the teeter a few times in competition now, but of course, this was a new place and a new teeter. Saturday, both times, she got on the teeter and took a few steps and jumped off. Sunday, when she stopped in the first run, I put my hand on her back and gently kept her from jumping off, while lowering the teeter with the other hand. Yep, that would be training in the ring, so I then thanked the judge and we left immediately and ran ran ran to her treats–freeze-dried turkey hearts, which appear to be basically some sort of addictive poodle drug. In the second run, she was having a wonderful fast run with lots of distance and speed, and I made sure to meet her at the teeter. I coaxed her across and you could see her make up her mind to do it (I even said “you’ve done it once, you know it’s not that big a deal”) and then she went on, fast and happy, got all the contacts, second place.

In addition to her Standard Q, Dancer also earned Qs (2nd) in Colors, Wildcard (3rd), FullHouse (1st), Snooker (1st), Jumpers (1st).

Elly’s Rimadyl is clearly making a big difference. She ran well and Qd in FOUR runs on Saturday! However, that turned out to be overdoing it a bit, and she only did one good run on Sunday–in the other, she asked to leave, so we did. Elly earned herself Qs in Wildcard, Jackpot, Standard, Snooker, and Colors. In Snooker on Sunday, we had the pleasure, as we finished the run, of hearing the judge say “first dog to make it to 7!” Elly reached the table just as the buzzer went off, signaling that it was time to get to the table. That was a fun run.

Joe Camp, one of my favorite agility photographers and one of Elly’s many fans, was there and took these photos:

Flying Poodle Elly (photo by Joe Camp)

Dancer trains her "I'm busy here!" look on the photographer while waiting to start (photo by Joe Camp)

Official results:
Dancer:
Standard, Level 2: 155 yards, SCT 67, 45.33 seconds, 0 faults, 2nd.
Jumpers, Level 2: 108 yards, SCT 39, 23.38 seconds, 0 faults, 1st
Snooker, Level 2: 32 points, 40.95 seconds (game time 45 seconds), 1st
FullHouse, Level 2: 31 points, 34.31 seconds (game time 35 seconds), 1st
Wildcard, Level 2: 71 yards, SCT 32, 19.57 seconds, 5 faults, 3rd
Colors, Level 2: 79 yards, SCT 36, 21.03 seconds, 2nd

Elly:
Snooker, Level 2: 45 points, 48.56 seconds (game time 45 seconds plus 5 seconds to finish), 1st
Colors, Level 1: 79 yards, SCT 41, 28.90 seconds
Standard, Level 2: 141 yards, SCT 63, 56.74 seconds
Jackpot, Level 1: 45.97 seconds, 41 points (game time 45, but they round the time down, so she squeaked a Q)
Wildcard, Level 2: 71 yards, SCT 32, 24.44 second, 2nd

Elly didn’t run, and Dancer Qd in only three of 12 runs, but parts of the weekend were excellent.

Dancer Qd in Open Tunnelers and got her Superior Open Tunnelers title in a time that would have qualified her in Elite (and took 1st), so we move out of Open Tunnelers, at last.

She Qd in Open Weavers (4th), Saturday afternoon at 4, in 97 degree heat, which is amazing.

She Qd in Novice Regular (1st)… one run out of four. I think they should have special contact zones for poodles, that run from the top of the a-frame to the bottom! We need to work even more on the contacts! I told her–as I led out for the start of the course–that if she jumped the contacts in that run, I would take her out and shoot her. It was the last of the four runs in regular. She got her contacts, but honestly, I don’t think anyone–much less Dancer–took the threat seriously. At least, I’m pretty sure the judge would have whistled me off for dog abuse if she’d been worried.

She had two clean-but-over-time runs in Elite Jumpers, but she was 5% over time in one and 7% over time in the other, both of them in the heat on Saturday–this is an improvement on 10-12% over time in previous Elite Jumpers runs on cooler days. And the heat was slowing down many dogs! She took third in her first run–only two dogs ran faster than her and ran clean, out of 20! After the first run, Susan Perry suggested that I focus on tightening my lines to get those times down a bit more. I did the next run with three front crosses and got tighter lines, but it was 95 out by then…

Touch N Go, being dependent on contacts…… should I say more? The good news? She was WAY under time.

Our Chances runs (distance class) had good bits and bad bits. Pretty much all of the bad bits were my fault and all the good bits were Dancer trying to understand and do what I was asking. I just didn’t have enough uncooked brain left.

Finally, our last run on Sunday, the one with Jay watching? That was the one where I completely forgot the course I’d planned and just left the ring by the shortest route. 97 degrees! Just too bleeping hot!

The high point of my weekend was a pair of standard runs. Dancer got her level 1 standard title on Saturday (cheap thrills, two runs, two Qs, one title) and there weren’t any moveups so I thought I’d really push the envelope on the two Sunday runs. On the first one, I led out lateral to the third obstacle–it was two jumps to a tunnel–as we’d been working on. I was about twenty feet lateral. I released her and she just flew down the line, got the “out” jump after the tunnel, and cantered over the dog walk… and I forgot to say stop and she missed the contact (but great opening!). 27.3 seconds for 121 yards. The course was reversed, so the next round began with jump-frame. I led out to the end of the frame, and then I tried to move as fast as I could, with as much distance as possible. She did the course in 26.01 seconds, and I remembered to say STOP on the dogwalk and she did get the contact. It was fun pushing us both that way. I have videos of both runs and I’ll try to get them up on Youtube sometime today… That’ll be a learning experience for me.

(I also got a huge kick out of the being the only handler in level 1 to attempt and get the 7-point obstacle in Snooker.)

The low point of my weekend: there were FIVE standard poodles at the trial. Four of them from Elly’s breeder (and closely related to Elly). Two of them have hip dysplasia–diagnosed with x-ray. And I had the sad task, after watching a 19-month-old standard refuse to jump, of asking the handler if she’d considered the possibility that her dog also has hip dysplasia. Great way to introduce yourself to someone. “Hi, my dog is related to yours and she’s got all these health problems, some of which are genetic. Have you thought about the possibility your expensive dog might have some genetic problems?”

Official results:
Dancer completed all legs in level 1 so she now has a new title: CL1:
Standard level 1: 132 yards, SCT 59 sec, 33.09 sec, 1st
Standard level 1: 132 yards, SCT 59 sec, 34.08 sec, 1st
Standard level 1: 121 yards, SCT 54 sec, 26.01 sec, 1st
Jumpers level 1: 90 yards, SCT 33 sec, 19.08 sec, 1st
FullHouse level 1: 23 points, 35.39 sec, 1st
Wildcard level 2: 91 yards, SCT 41 sec, 44.39 sec, 3 faults, 1st place
Colors level 2: 77 yards, SCT 39, 21.26 sec, 5 faults, 2nd place
Jackpot level 1: 41 points, 39.55 (time permitted 40 sec), 1st place
Snooker level 1: 44 points, 39 seconds, 1st place

Elly:
Standard level 1: 121 yards, SCT 54 sec, 41.27 sec, 1st
Standard level 1: 132 yards, SCT 59 sec, 58.58 sec, 5 faults, 2nd
Wildcard level 1: 91 yards, SCT 46 sec, 47.61 sec, 1 fault, 1st

I really wish I could find the interview again, because it really struck a chord. When I’d been training dog agility for about two years, I was helping teach a class; I honestly thought I understood training and the sport of agility. Well, I don’t think I did any damage with my arrogance–I’d been well taught and I was passing on good training techniques–but… it was certainly arrogant of me to think I understood agility.

I’ve now been doing dog agility training and competing for almost six years–it’ll be six years in August–and I feel I’m just beginning to get the subtleties of the sport. I’ve learned to observe dogs and people to watch the dance between them; I’ve learned that every dog is different AND every dog is the same ; I’ve learned how to memorize courses by looking at patterns not obstacles; I’ve actually put an elite title on a dog, which is not that easy, even if it looks that way when you see someone get a MaCH (or NATCH or ADCH or whatever) almost every trial.

And I’ve learned how much I do not know about agility. I’ve learned that I’m just beginning.

Every dog is different and every dog is the same: ALL dogs will repeat behavior that they find rewarding; each dog is motivated by different things–and may need a different set of instructions to get to the same result.